Two new stages

A new venture called Quartyard will take over two-thirds of a downtown city block and present live concerts May through October. Attendees will be served by a full-bar, beer gardens, and food trucks.

Quartyard is the concept of an urban planning group called Rad Lab. Partner Philip Auchettl says the first Quartyard show features Seattle indie-folk artist Kris Orlowski and band, February 21 ($7 admission). He says the smaller shows (600–800 capacity) may have seating. Fans will stand for the bigger (1100) shows. Auchettl says his group is speaking to the Belly Up and others about booking the rest of 2015.

Quartyard is on 30,000 square feet of city-owned property bounded by Market and G Streets and Park Boulevard that will one day be developed. “But we will be here for a couple of years,” says Auchettl. “Then we will pick up and move on to a new area.” The city allowed 48 amplified shows, with music ending at 10 p.m. weeknights, midnight on weekends.

Meanwhile, the man who co-founded Brick by Brick 21 years ago is getting back into the live-rock business.

Chris Haney helped put that 400-seat showcase on the map by remodeling and renaming the old Spirit Club, and then by bringing in Les Claypool, Portishead, Ice T’s Body Count, among other international acts to play that Bay Park nightspot. “There is always a need for live music, even if it wasn’t as big as it once was,” says Haney, who also owns the live-jazz venue the Rook in La Mesa.

Haney and two partners just got a 16-year lease on the San Carlos bar formerly known as Second Wind, Navajo, and will host original and cover bands. The new Navajo Live is set to open February 1. He says he will welcome outside promoters and touring national acts, but acknowledges he may not be able to pull in the names he did at Brick because his new bar is about half as big.

And it won’t be a Til-Two or Soda Bar. “I’m 50, I’m into ’80s rock, and I have a mullet, so it won’t be the hippest bar in town.”